Arizona has, officially and indisputably, played more night games than any program in the Pac-12 since the current television agreement began in 2012.

The Hotline obtained (courtesy of the conference office) a breakdown of night games for each team for the past eight years.

Yes, they track such matters at Pac-12 HQ — they track them very closely, in fact, and strive for equity.

Duane Lindberg, the longtime associate commissioner for TV, has compiled loads of logistical information from his years working closely with ESPN, Fox and the Pac-12 Networks.

Lindberg discussed the scheduling process … the night games, the 6- and 12-day selection process, all of it … during an hour-long podcast with the Hotline that will be published later this week.

A portion of our conversation zeroed in on night games.

A portion of that portion was devoted to the Arizona schools, to September heat, and to the late starts in Tucson and Tempe.

According to Lindberg, the Wildcats have played 36 night games over the course of the current TV deal; the Sun Devils have played 32; nobody else has played more than 28.

And there’s a reason:

Conference policy forbids ESPN and Fox from scheduling day games on the Arizona campuses in August and September.

There are exceptions, but only if the networks request an exemption and the host school approves, Lindberg said.

“It’s strictly a campus decision,’’ he added.

Such was the case Sept. 26, 2015, when the Wildcats played host to UCLA at 5 p.m.

Official temperature in Arizona Stadium at kickoff: 97 degrees.

“It wasn’t one of our finer moments with our TV partners,” Lindberg told me during the recorded conversation.

“If we get the request, we’ll go to the campus and say we’ve had the request, and they (the schools) have to weigh it from the standpoint of what the exposure would be.

“In this case (in 2015), the game was on ABC — it was broadcast exposure — and we did it, and it was very, very hot. Much to my chagrin, our TV partners, who had asked us to put the game on (in the afternoon) in September in Tucson, then started the telecast with thermometer on the field that showed exactly how hot it was.

“Based on our history, we tell our TV partners that our standing position is that in September, games at Arizona and Arizona State will be played at night. But there are cases, if we get the request from our TV partners — but it’s strictly a campus decision.”

The night game totals for all schools from 2011-18 (provided by Lindberg):

From the Hotline’s vantage point, the only way to truly determine if Arizona is unfairly burdened with night kickoffs is to account for the September heat policy — they must have the heat policy; that’s on Mother Nature, not Larry Scott — and then recalculate.

It’s a tricky calculation because the number of home games in Tucson (and Tempe) in September varies by the year and the number of Saturdays in late August and September varies, as well.

But we’ll make a reasonable attempt …

The Wildcats have played 24 home games prior to Oct. 1, or an average of three per season.

That seems clean and easy, except for this: Some of those games would be played at night even if Tucson had San Diego’s weather.

Everybody plays at night one week or another — we can’t presume the Wildcats’ average in September would drop from three to zero if the heat policy were removed from the calculation.

Let’s call the additional night games due to weather the Heat Policy Overage (HPO) and set the number at one game per September.

In other words:

With no heat policy, the Wildcats would still be playing an average of two night home games in the first month.

Key point: Matchups matter, and Arizona typically doesn’t schedule the high-profile opponents that would be of interest to ESPN or Fox for afternoon or prime-time slots.

(Texas Tech’s visit this weekend marks the Wildcats’ first non-conference home game against a Power Five opponent since 2012.)

Factoring a Heat Policy Overage of one game per year for eight years into the calculation, Arizona’s all-things-being-equal night game total would be 28.

The Wildcats would be tied with Cal for the highest total in the conference.

(We would, of course, have to make the same assumption with ASU, dropping their number to 24.)

Lindberg didn’t dispute the Hotline’s theory that the best way to avoid night games is to ride the extremes — to be either very good or very bad.

The ranked teams are more likely to get picked for afternoon kickoffs by ESPN/ABC and FOX, and the bottom feeders are more likely to land on the Pac-12 Networks in the late morning/early afternoon windows.

But teams that are pretty good and play an exciting style and have a marquee player — those teams are likely to land on ESPN/2 or FS1 in the night slots.

For Arizona, it seems, a little of everything has resulted in a lot of one thing.

**** Coming Thursday:

1. Commissioner Larry Scott, the university presidents, a cash grab, night games and unintended consequences — how the Pac-12 got to this point.

2. The first Hotline podcast of the 2019 season: My conversation with Lindberg about all matters of scheduling.

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